424 THE PALMS OF BRITISH INDIA AND CEYLON
apprendre ou il etait alie. M. Wendland eut a coeur d'eclaircir
ce mystere, et, a force de recherches, il finit par decouvrir que
la preciease plante, volee par un employe de Kew, avait et6
vendue, apres avoir passe en diverses mains, a M. Borsig, de
Berlin, ou M. K Koch la vit en 1859 et la deerivit sous le nom
ftAstrocaryum Borsigiamim." De Kerchove de Denterghem.
Les Palmiers. Paris, 1878, p. 124-125.
CULTIVATION IN EUROPE.—A noble stove palm. A hot,
moisture-laden atmosphere is necessary. If the temperature is
t;oo low, or if the air becomes dry, the" palm begins to suffer.
It grows well in a compost of fibrous peat, pieces of charcoal,
and turfy loam and sand. Perfect drainage required. Propa-
gation by means of imported seed.
MYTHOLOGICAL ORIGIN OF Stevensonia.—With regard to this
palm the natives of the Seychelles narrate that a bird of gigantic
proportions took, after the creation, his flight towards the sun
and as he was flying too fast he lost one of his feathers. The
feather was carried about in space for a long time and, finally,
fell to the ground in one of the islands. There it found fertile
soil and growing roots developed into a magnificent palm. The
leaves of this tree consist of one piece and grow larger* towards
the top, resembling thus the feather of a gigantic bird of
bygone times.
ILLUSTRATION.—M*. Millard was kind enough to supply us
with the photograph of a young specimen of Stevensonia growing
in his garden on Malabar Hill. The leaf-sheaths are compara-
tively very iong and covered with long spines. There is only
one leaf in our picture which distinctly shows the bifid blade
of the plant Plate LXXIX.
Plate LXXX shows a well developed palm of the same species,
taken by Mr. Macmillan in the Botanic Garden of Peradeniya.
Between and behind the leaves the remains of some old spadices
may be seen, whilst in the centre of the crown there is a young
spadix still enclosed in its spathes.
& ACANTHOPHCENIX WENDL. IN FL. DBS
SEBRES, t 181.
(Etym.: Prom the CSreek 'acantha/ a thorn or prickle^ and
/ a palm.)